A lawyer had to apologize for a strange late-night outburst on GB News after a presenter announced that he was representing Matt Hancock over thousands of leaked WhatsApp messages sent during the pandemic. Jonathan Coad was invited onto the GB News debate on Sunday by host Steve N Allen, who introduced him as the lawyer representing the ex-Health Secretary over the messages leaked by political journalist Isabel Oakeshott.
However, Mr. Coad was left furious after the news program’s host told viewers the lawyer had been “recently asked to act for Matt Hancock.”
The irate lawyer raged, “I made it absolutely clear to your program, I asked them not to disclose that. That is very, very poor journalism.” He also accused GB News of “throwing poo left, right and centre” at Mr. Hancock.
Minutes after the angry rant, in which the lawyer also accused GB News of “throwing poo left, right and centre” at Mr. Hancock, host Mr. Allen read out Mr. Coad’s email to the show which revealed the legal eagle had missed out a key word. The email said:
“As a courtesy to the lady who approached me to act for MH [Matt Hancock] I would be grateful if it was mentioned that he asked me to act for him (via his assistant).”
As the studio audience roared with laughter at the mistake, Mr. Coad apologized, saying, “You’re absolutely right, it’s my mistake, I missed out the ‘not’ – I take all of that back.
You’re right and I’m wrong. Fair dos, I’m absolutely wrong about that, my apologies.”
Mr. Coad has since been mocked online for his apparent slip-up, which has been viewed almost 650,000 times. But he was given credit by viewers for owning up and apologizing for the mistake.
The news comes just days after more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages were leaked to the Telegraph by Isabel Oakeshott – Mr. Hancock’s ghostwriter for the book Pandemic Diaries. Ms. Oakshott spent almost a year helping to write the book and claimed to have viewed “thousands and thousands of sensitive government communications relating to the pandemic.”
But the political journalist’s leak could have breached a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). She has since claimed that Mr. Hancock had sent her “menacing” messages in the early hours following the release of the messages.
Mr. Hancock admitted telling the journalist she had made a “big mistake” by passing on the private messages to a newspaper.
But he denied his message had been threatening and accused her of a “massive betrayal and breach of trust.”